Abbie Eaton on her career and evolving opportunities in motorsport

Abbie Eaton, former W Series driver, test driver for hit show ‘The Grand Tour’ and motorsport all-rounder competing in categories ranging from touring cars to rallycross, recently sat down with us at Silverstone to talk about her career, projects, and opinions on motorsport’s ever-changing landscape. 

A varied racing career

With a passion for motorsport stemming from her dad’s own racing background, Abbie made her first steps into the world of karting at age 10. Competing in karts for four years, Abbie recalls how limited budget while karting made the experience “more fun”, with old karts and engines taking her across the line as she took her first steps into the world of racing. 

Outgrowing karts, her next step up to cars came at just 15 years old. Eaton remembers asking her dad “how do I know when to change gear?”, jumping straight behind the wheel of a proper car on the track years before being able to drive on the road. From there, her varied and impressive career continued, moving from saloon cars to sports cars to GTs, as well as showings in Formula 3, W Series, and rallycross. 

“Any opportunity that came my way, I’d say yes to it. I’d grab it with both hands.” 

“Whether I had experience or not, [I thought to myself] this could be another route I could go down here…”

When asked the category she most enjoyed racing in, rallycross came straight to mind. 

“I did European rallycross. It was a new series that had been set up and they wanted to do some promotion for it. They brought me in for one round at Lydden Hill and I absolutely loved it. I ended up doing four of the rounds in the season. I would do it again in a heartbeat!” 

Making motorsport more accessible 

Having competed across the varied racing landscape, Eaton is keen to open motorsport opportunities to more young talent. With the help of a co-founder looking to help make the sport more accessible, she founded Rebelleo Motorsport. 

“[Motorsport is] very niche, in terms of the drivers. You’ve always got a similar type of driver that does it, and that’s mainly because of the money situation. Over the last few years, everyone’s been working really hard to tackle a variety of issues in motorsport with help from figures like Lewis Hamilton and Vettel in F1 flying the flag in the highest pinnacle of the sport. We wanted to do something to address grassroots opportunities a bit more.” 

“Rebelleo Motorsport has been built as a platform where people can come to ask questions, receive help getting into the sport; whether you’re a driver, mechanic, or videographer, we’re basically there to help with opportunities in the industry.” 

“The biggest part is funding. We help to fund drivers from backgrounds with no money, or they’re at a certain level but just need help getting to the next one which will hopefully catapult them on their way.” 

“It’s tackling that motorsport is a male dominated sport, it can be elitist where only those who can afford it make it to the top, which means the best drivers don’t always make it to the top.” 

“[Rebelleo] is there to try and address that and help more drivers with their careers”

Reflecting on her own next career step, Eaton also noted that helping nurture new talent is important to what she wants to do next. 

“It’s something I want to do to try and leave a bit of a legacy as I transition from driver to team manager, team owner. That’s the next step for me on my side as well.” 

An ever-evolving sport 

Abbie has seen a shift in how women and other under-represented groups are given opportunities to compete in the sport. Starting 22 years ago, she recalls how “when I started, I could count on one hand the number of females in the karting championships, out of hundreds and hundreds of kids.” 

“I think it depends on who you ask when it comes to how we were treated back then.” 

“For me, I’m a very determined person. If there was a situation where I was treated differently or negatively, it would give fuel to my fire. It made me a better driver, being a minority, using it to push me forward.” 

“That said, there were hurdles. For me, this was finance. There were opportunities there for me if I wanted them, but it was just the funding I couldn’t raise to do it.” 

Recent initiatives to promote women in motorsport, such as W Series and F1 Academy, are seen by Abbie to be a step in the right direction, helping to bring female racing drivers into mainstream awareness. 

“Championships like W Series, which was free to enter, are an awesome, awesome, thing to do.”

“It didn’t end the way we wanted it to, but without W Series, F1 Academy would never have happened.” 

“If you ignore the funding side of W Series, it was really successful for promoting women in motorsport.” 

“It’s done more good for the sport than people realise.” 

Looking to the future

When asked how the sport could further develop to make it more accessible to all, Eaton highlighted that while the sport is improving, there is still work to be done.

“There are people addressing the problems all throughout the sport, and that needs to continue. We’re already way further on than we were.”

“I hope over the next 10-20 years for that to continue growing and developing.”

“The financial side of things, I think will be more difficult. It’s not just motorsport it’s the world and sport in general. Everything’s getting more expensive.”

“There needs to be work done to open opportunities for people to come and access these sports regardless of finances.” 

Advice for the next generation 

With her history in the sport and new projects developing the next generation of drivers, Abbie has some advice for those looking to, or help their children, get into motorsport. 

“The best bit of advice I can give to a kid or parent of a kid looking to get into it is don’t give up. If you’re passionate and really want to do something, just keep pushing. Keep pestering, become a bit of a sponge and absorb absolutely every bit of information you can from people. Go to race circuits and properly immerse yourself in the sport and see what you can do that is different from what others are doing.” 

“Find something unique. People invest in the person.” 

A Silverstone regular

Living close to the circuit and a regular visitor to Silverstone, Abbie finds the track’s technical, high-speed nature makes for a challenging, but enjoyable, drive.  

“We’re very lucky as British drivers to have this circuit on our doorstep,” she begins. “You can’t switch off at Silverstone, you can overstep so easily – it’s a really technical circuit.” 

When asked her favourite section of the track, Maggotts and Becketts was the obvious choice for the driver. 

“It’s the really high speed. And it’s one to the next, to the next. When you’re entering or in the middle of a corner, you’re already thinking about the next. If you go in a bit too fast and it means your line is slightly off, it messes up the entire run. At the end of these fast corners, you’ve got a long straight, so if you mess up any part, you’ll enter wrong and lose a chunk of time.” 

“It’s really difficult to get right. It’s high risk.” 

“Your inputs into the car have to be short and sharp. For example, when you’re going into Vale, which is a slow corner, you’ve got time to think. But when you go into a faster corner like these you’ve got no time to think.”

“If it’s going to bite you, that’s the kind of place it’ll bite you. You’ve got to be fast and react quickly.” 

Getting more involved 

With so many events, clubs, and series running throughout the year, Abbie’s advice for those looking to grow their understanding of the sport is to visit some of the lesser-known events to get closer to the community. We asked her personal favourite, and with no hesitation an event came to mind.  

“Always MX-5s. That’s where I won my second championship in 2014 – Mazda MX-5 SuperCup. The racing is always really close with 30-odd cars on the grid.” 

“If that’s where you want to start [competing], that type of championship is where you want to go. There are so many people on the grid and the range of expertise is so varied that no matter where you start on that grid, you’re going to have someone to race.” 

“As a spectator you’re going to have great fighting from the front, middle, and back of the pack” 

“People at these race meetings are super friendly. Go and ask them questions – my dad’s got an old Australian touring car we run and it’s the only one in the UK, so that usually drives a lot of interest. People flock over to ask questions.”

“We’re all likeminded people, we all love the sport. It’s an awesome sport. It’s taught me a lot since being a young kid. Like how to win, how to lose, how to make friends, how to deal with difficult situations, so if you can immerse yourself in it any way you can it’s an awesome sport to be part of.” 

Advice for taking the wheel at Silverstone

One of Abbie’s motorsport activities is instructing customers for Drive Silverstone experiences. We asked her advice for those looking to take the wheel at the Home of British Motorsport. 

“The best piece of advice I can give a driver is take you brain out and leave it out of the car. Just respond to the instructions you’re being given.”

“The instructors know the circuit; they know exactly where to brake and turn.” 

“If you respond to the instructions being given to you, you’ll automatically learn the circuit.” 

“Just remember your instructor is there to help you. Listen to your instructor, and you’ll find it easy."

Keep up to date on what Abbie's up to next: @abbieeaton44